According to the democracy index, Azerbaijan is an “authoritarian” country

Over the past year, the global context of democracy has seriously regressed, according to the Annual Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit on January 31. The subject of research were 165 independent countries and two territories. Over the past year, the worst indicator since the financial and economic crisis of 2010 was noted. Compared to 2016, no improvement was observed in any region. Only less than five percent of the world’s population lives in a “full democracy” environment. Among the full democracies are named: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark. Azerbaijan ranks 148th in the category of “authoritarian country”. Neighbors in the region – Georgia (79th) and Armenia (111th) were among the “hybrid countries”. Russia is also recognized as an “authoritarian” country, and ranks 135th place. In the current Index, special attention is paid to regression in the field of media freedom. In the Freedom Index, Azerbaijan ranked 154th, having got into the group of “not free countries”. In the same group, Russia is on the 139th place. Georgia (49th place) is recognized as “partially free”, Armenia (109) was in the group of “mostly not free countries”.

The Azerbaijani authorities have not yet commented on this index, but it can be confidently said that such a conclusion will be called the tricks of the foes of Azerbaijan and the Armenian lobby.